Livestock health

Most losses in a small herd come from things that a calendar prevents. Vaccination on time, deworming on time, clean water and a dry floor do more than any treatment does.

Keep

A written record of every vaccination and deworming, per animal

Ask your vet for

The schedule for your district, because it follows local disease pressure

Daily

Clean water, a dry place to lie, and a look at every animal while it feeds

Fever, drooling, and blisters in the mouth and between the hooves. Animals go off feed and lame at the same time. Milk drops sharply and often does not fully return.

Watch for

Drooling and reluctance to stand, together

Do first

Separate the animal from the rest immediately, and call a vet the same day

Prevented by

The vaccination round run by your state, which is why the rounds matter

Two fast killers of cattle and buffalo that arrive with the monsoon. An animal can be normal in the morning and dead by evening, which is why these are vaccinated before the rains rather than after.

Watch for

High fever, swelling at the throat or in a hind leg, sudden severe illness

Do first

Call a vet at once. Hours matter with both of these

Timing

Vaccinate before the monsoon starts, not during it

A hot, hard or swollen quarter, and milk with clots or flakes in it. It is the single most expensive routine problem in a small dairy, and most of it comes from milking hygiene.

Watch for

Clots in the first few squirts, which is where it shows before the udder does

Do first

Strip the first few squirts into a cup and look at them, every milking, every animal

Prevented by

Clean hands, clean udder, dry bedding, and milking the affected animal last

Fever, discharge from the eyes and nose, mouth sores and severe diarrhoea. It moves through a flock quickly and kills a high share of the young animals.

Watch for

Discharge and diarrhoea together in several animals within a few days

Do first

Separate the flock from other flocks and call a vet the same day

Prevented by

The national vaccination programme. Ask your vet when the next round is

Abortion in the last third of pregnancy, retained placenta and repeat breeding. It passes to people, which makes it different from everything else on this list.

Watch for

More than one late abortion in a herd

Do first

Do not handle the aborted material without gloves. Call a vet and say what you saw

Worth knowing

Female calves can be vaccinated at the right age. Ask your vet about the window

A rough coat, a pot belly, slow growth and a poor milk yield with no obvious illness. Ticks and lice show on the animal and are worst where sheds are crowded.

Watch for

A young animal that eats well and still does not grow

Do first

Ask your vet for a dung test rather than deworming on a guess

Worth knowing

Deworming on a guess, over and over, is what makes the worms resistant